Paper-feeding mechanism.



E. L. SMITH.

PAPER FEEDING MECHANISM.

APPLICATION man Patented Oct. 29, 1918.

4 SHEETS-SHEET I.

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E. L. SMITH.

PAPER FEEDING MECHANISM.

APRUCATIDN man AUG.28.1915.

1,283,342. Patented Oct. 29. 1918.

4 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

Patented 0013. 29, 1918.

4 SHEETSMSHEEI 3.

m 0 1 a M a J E. L. SMITH.

PAPER FEEDING MECHANISM.

APPLICATION FILED AUG-28,1915.

1,283,342. Patented Oct. 29, 1918.

4 SHEETS-SHEET 4.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

ELMER L. SMITH, OF SPRINGFIELD, MASSACHUSETTS, ASSIGNOR T0 PACKAGE MACHIN- ERY COMPANY, OF SPRINGFIELD, MASSACHUSETTS, A CORPORATION OF MASSA- CHUSET'IS.

PAPER-FEEDING MECHANISM.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Oct. 29, 1918.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, ELMER L. SMITH, a citizen of the United States, residing at Springfield, in the county of Hampden and State of Massachusetts, have invented certain Improvements in Paper-Feeding Mechanisms, of which the following description, in connection with the accompanying drawings, is a specification, like reference characters on the drawings indicating like parts in the several figures.

This invention relates to paper feeding mechanisms of the character employed, for instance, in wrapping, banding and packaging machinery and generally in machines where it is desired to feed pa er, metal, foil, or other sheet material (hereinafter for convenience referred to as paper) to a mechanism that folds, prints or acts on paper in some other manner. The invention is especially concerned with paper feeding mechanisms designed to take paper from a roll and cut it into sheets. object of the invention to devise a mechanism of this general character which shall be applicable to a wide range of uses and capable of handling paper of a wide variety of dimensions; in other words, to rovide a mechanism of this type which s all so far as possible have a universal character. To these ends the invention is directed particularly to the provision in a mechanism of this type of means b which the length of the sheets cut from tie strip or web of paper fed from the roll can be readily adjusted; to devise means for cutting the sheets without stopping the feed of the aper and preferably w ile keeping the supp y roll r0- tating at ubstantially a constant speed; and also to the provision of means for adjusting the timing of the delivery of the sheets. It

is obvious of course that certain of these features can be used without the others without departing from the scope of this invention.

A convenient embodiment of the invention, including the features above mentioned and certain additional features, will'now be described. reference being made to the accompanying drawings, in which Figure 1 is a front elevation of a mocha! nism constructed in accordance with this invention;

Fig. 2 is a rear elevation of the side of he m ch nism h w in F g- 1;

It is the chief Fig. 3 is a plan view of the mechanism shown in Figs. 1 and 2;

Fig. 4 i a vertical cross sectional view showing a detail of construction;

Figs. 5 and 6 are end views of the paper feeding rolls showing them in different positions; and

Fig. 7 is a vertical sectional view through a part of the stop device that operates on the paper cutting mechanism.

A roll of pa er is supported on a reel (not shown) w ieh allows the roll to rotate While the web or strip of paper P is unwound fro it and is fed into the mechanism This strip is inserted between a pair of aper feeding rolls 2 and 3,respectively, liaving their peripheries covered with rubber, leather, or other material enabling them to grip the paper firmly. These rolls would run in peripheral contact with each other if the strip of paper were not inserted between them and they are driven in the directions indicated by the arrows in Fig. 1, thus causing them to advance the strip P of paper, unwinding it from the supply roll and feeding it into a paper cutting mechanism that comprises a knife carrying roll 4 and a bed roll .5 which cooperate to sever the-strip. The two aper feeding rolls 2 and 3 are mounted ast on shafts 6 and 7, respectively, which are supported in horizontal bearings formed in the machine frame 8 and these shafts carryv at their ends opposite the rolls 2 and 3 gears 10 and 11, respectively, which mesh with each other. The rolls 4 and 5 similarly are mounted on shafts 12 and 13 which are supported in bearings formed in the frame 8 and they carry ears 14 and 1:), respectively, mounted at t e front side of the frame 8 which mesh with each other and cause the rolls 4 and 5 to rotate together. At the back side of the frame 8 the shaft 13 also carries a gear 16 that meshes with the gear 18 which also runs in mesh with the gear 11. The cutter rolls and feed rolls thus are geared together and are compelled to rotate at the same peripheral speed. The main driving shaft 20 for the mechanism carries a gear ,21 which .drives a pinion 22 arranged to rotate Fi 4) which is rotatably mounted on a stu shaft 23 and is held thereon by means of a washer 27 and nut 28. This shaft is secured rigidly in a small bracket 30 which is pivoted to swing about the axis of the shaft 20 and is held in an adjusted position by means of a bolt 31 threaded into the frame 8 and projecting through a slot 32 formed in the bracket concentrically with the shaft 20.

A stop mechanism is employed to normally maintain the cutting mechanism in an inoperative condition. This stop mechanism comprises a clutch consisting of two toothed members 31 and 35, the former of said members being secured to the face of the. car 16 by means of screws 36, as shown in 1g. 7 and the other toothed member being r0- vided with a hub that is splined to the s raft 13 so that it is enabled to slide on said shaft but is compelled to rotate therewith. A series of pins 37, each backed up by a spring 38 and mounted in holes drilled in the hub of the member 35, bear against a washer 39 fast on the end of the shaft 13 and thus tend to force the clutch member 35 into driving engagement with its companion member 31. A collar 40 pinned to the shaft 13 between the members 34 and 35 holds the car 16 and member 34 against movement ongitudinally of the shaft 13. Fast on the hub of the member 35 is a wedge or cam shaped piece 42. This part is positioned to be engaged by a roll 44 mounted on one arm of a three-arm latch lever 46, another arm of said lever being acted upon by a spring 47 in a direction tending to swing the lever about its fulcrum 48 and hold the roll 44 in contact with the member 42. In orderto tri the stop mechanism the gear 21 on the driving shaft 20 is equipped with a trip 50 which is arranged to strike, at a certain point in its rotation, a roll 51 carried by one arm of the lever 46 and move this lever in a clockwise direction as the parts are seen in Fig. 2, thus lifting the roll 44 out of engagement with the cam piece 42.

It will now be evident that, when the shaft 20 is rotated in a counter clockwise direction as seen in Fig.2, the paper'feeding rolls 2 and 3 will be rotated through the intermediate gearing in a direction causing them to advance the strip of pa or P into the cuttin mechanism. When t e trip 50 operates t rough the lever 46 to lift the roll 44 out of engagement with the cam piece 42, the springs 38 will force the clutch members 34 and 35 into en agement with'each. other, thus causin the s aft 13 to rotate with the gear 16. 1e cutting mechanism then will operate to sever the strip of paper; but be fore the shaft 13 has completed one revolution the cum face of the part 42 will come into contact with the roll 44, which by this time has been returned to its no l i.

tion by means of the spring 47, and the travel of this member 42 n contact with the roll 44 will slide the clutch member 35 along the shaft 13 out of engagement with its companion member 40 and crowd the end of the hub of the part 35 against the washer 39, thus positively stopping the rotation of the shaft 13, and consequently stopping the ro-. tation of the rolls 4 and 5 and rendering the cutting mechanism ino erative. The main shaft 20, however, wil continue to rotate uninterruptedly and consequently the feed rolls 2 and 3 willcontinue to advance the stri of paper P until the part 50 again stri es the roll 51 carried by the lever 46, thus tripping the stop mechanism and allowing the cutter mechanism to rotate again. It will beseen that the rotation of the knife is stopped each time at a predetermined point in its path of rotation so that there is no possibi ity of the cutting mechanism getting out of time with the other moving elements of the machine.

It is contemplated that the main shaft 20 will be driven by or in step with wrapping, printing or other mechanism to which the sheets of paper are fed and in order to time the delivery of these sheets with reference to the operation of the mechanism to which they are. fed, the tri 50 is made an larly adjustable with re erence to the riving shaft 20. In the arrangement shown the gear 21 that carries the part 50 has an annular shouldered groove 52 formed in it and mounted in this groove is the head of the bolt 53 which extends through the part 50 and has a nut threaded thereon serving to clamp the member 50 securely a ainst the face of the gear 21. It is obvious that by changing the angular adjustment of this member 50 on the gear 21 the time at which the sheet will be delivered with reference to the angular position of the shaft 20 will be varied and accordingly, thepoint at which each sheet will be delivered in the cycle of operations of the wrapping or other mechanism will be changed.

As above stated it is desirable to be able to adjust the length of. the sheetscut from the 'strip or web of paper that is fed into the mechanism. This result may be conveniently obtained by removing the gears 22 and 24 from the shaft 23 and replacing the gear 24 witha larger or smaller ar depending on whether it is desire to cut longer or shorter sheets. In other words, it is obvious that the arrangement shown in Fig. 2 will causethe feed rolls 2 and 3 to advance a strip of pa er of a certain length at each revolution 0 the driving gear 21. Now if the gear ratio between the gear 21 and the rolls 2 and 3 is increased, which can be done by substituting a lar er gear for the gear 24, the feedrolls wil measure off a longer length of pap r at eachrotation of the shaft 20; and similarly if the gear ratio is decreased the rolls will measure off a shorter length of paper. Accordingly it is merely necessary to select a gear 24 of a proper size to cause the mechanism to feed the desired length of pa )er at each revolution of the driving sha t. This change in the gear ratio between the driving shaft and the feed rolls has no effect on the cutter rolls other than to change their speed of rotation during the period in' which the stop mechanism is rendered ineffective so that these rolls will always have the same peripheral speed as the feed rolls. The operaton of the stop mechanism will be interrupted by the trip 50 once in each rotation of the driving shaft and the cutter mechanism will op erate during this interruption to out off the strip of paper measured off by the feed rolls during a single revolution of the driving shaft. The mounting of the bracket 30 which carries the stub shaft on which the gear :24 rotates is such that the gear'24 or its substitute can be moved into or out of mesh with its cooperating gear 18, and the bracket can then be secured in its adjusted position.

The paper cutting mechanism may be of any convenient character but preferably is arranged to cut a strip of paper into sheets of uniform length and to do the cutting without interfering with the forward movement of the paper. In fact, one advantage of the mechanismshown is that the paper feeding mechanism is arranged to advance the strip or web of paper continuously, thus unwindlng the paper rom the feed roll at a uniform rate and avoiding any of the diflicultjes that otherwise might be experienced due to thc momentum of the roll or the accumulation of slack behind the feed rolls. It is desirable therefore to cut the strip into sheets while it is moving forward. In the cutting mechanism shown the upper roll 4 carries a knife which is arranged to registcr with a notch 56 in the bed roll Provision preferably is made for gripping the paper in advance of the knife so that it will be held taut between the point where it is gripped and the feed rolls while the knife savers the strip. In the construction shown this cbject is accomplished by providing the pcriphcry (if the bed roll 5 with an insert 57 of rubber, fclt or other suitable material which presses the strip of paper I firmly against theuppcr roll 4 (as shown in Fig. 5) at the instant that the knife 55 engages the paper. and continues to grip the strip until the knife has complctelv passed through the paper. releasing the strip just before the parts come into the relative positions in which they are shown in Fig. 6.

The strip of paper after passing between the rolls l and 3 travels over a support car ried b the machine frame and passes on to the upper reach of a conveyer belt 58 which is supported by two pulleys .39 and Q0. Preferably the sheets of paper are carried away from the cutting mechanism at a greater speed than that at which thepaper is delivered to said mechanism. For this purpose the main shaft 20 is provided in front of the frame 8 with a gear 61 which drives a pinion 2 arranged to rotate with and drive the pulley 59, the gear ratio being such as to give the requisite increase in speed. The upper reach of the belt 58 passes over a platform 63 which serves to support the belt in a horizontal plane; and guides 64 and 65, respectively, are provided just above the belt and spaced slightly from it to protect and guide the sheets of paper as they are advanced by the belt. Two rolls 66 and 67, mounted, respectively, on pivoted arms 68 and 69, overlie the belt 58 at the opposite ends of the guide M and serve as additional guides for the sheets of paper. These rols are held lightly in contact with the belt, when not separated from it by a sheet of paper, by means of springs 70 and 71, respectively. The belt of course delivers the sheets of paper one at a time to the wrapping or other mechanism in which they are utilized.

The mechanism shown in the accompanyi ng drawings is constructed to handle narrow widths of paper but it is obvious that it is merely a matter of design to construct a mechanism operating on the same principles adapted for handling other widths of paper.

Having thus descrlbed my invention, what I claim as new and desire to. secure by Letters Patent of the United States is 1. In a mechanism of the character described, the combination with a pair of paper feeding rolls adapted to advance a strip of paper between them and means for driving said rolls continuously, of rotary cutting mechanism operative to cut the strip of paper as it is advanced by said rolls into sheets of substantially uniform length, a stop mechanism operative normally to render said cutting mechanism inoperative, and means for tripping said stop mechanism, periodically to permit the cutting mechanism to operate.

2. In a mechanism of the character described. the combination of a pair of paper feeding rolls adapted to advance a strip of paper between them and means for driving said rolls continuously, of rotary cutting mechanism operative to cut the strip of pa per as it is advanced b' said rolls into 'shccts of substantially uni orm length, a sto mechanism operative normally to hold said cutting mechanism against rotation. and means operated by the driving mechanism for said rolls for tripping said stop mechanism periodically and thereby causing the cutting mechanism to operate.

3. In a mechanism of the character described. the combination with a pair of paper feeding rolls adapted to advance a strip of paper between them and means for driving said rolls continuously, of rotary cutting mechanism operative to cut the strip of paper as it is advanced by said rolls into sheets of substantially uniform length, a stop mechanism operative normally to render said cutting mechanism -inoperative, and means operated by the driving mechanism for said rolls and adjustable with relation to said driving mechanism for tripping said step mechanism periodicallyv and thus causing the cutting mechanism to operate.

4. In a mechanism of the character described, the combination with a pair of paper feeding rolls arranged to advance a strip of paper between them and means for driving said rolls continuously, of an intermittently operating cutting mechanism arranged to cut the strip to form sheets and into which said strip is advanced by said rolls, said cutting mechanism including a knife mounted to rotate in a fixed path and.

operating mechanism for said knife constructed and arranged to cause the knife, while performing its cutting operation, to advance at the same speed as the portion of said strip through which it is cutting.

5. In a mechanism of the character described, the combination with a pair of paper feeding rolls and gear mechanism for driving said rolls continuously including a changeable gear and supporting means therefor whereby the ratio of the driving mechanism for said rolls may be changed, of an intermittently operated rotary cutting mechanism arranged 'to cut the stri to form sheets and into which the strip 0 paper is fed by said rolls, said cutting mechanism being driven by said changeable gear and having its paper cutting members constructed and arranged to perform their cutting operation by virtue of their rotative movement and to rotate at substantially the same peripheral speed during the cutting operation as that at which the paper is fed to them.

6. In a mechanism of the character described, the combination with a pair of paper feeding rolls operative to advance a strip of paper between them and means for driving said rolls continuously, of a rotary cutting mechanism comprising a knife carrying roll and a bed roll between which said strip of paper is advanced by said paper feedin rolls, and operating mechanism for sai knife carrying and bed rolls constructed and arranged to rotate them intermittently, but operative to drive them during the cutting operation at substantially the same peripheral speed as that at which the paper is fed into said cutting mechanism.

7. In a mechanism of the character described, the combination with a pair of paper feeding rolls constructed and arranged to advance a strip of paper between them, a driving member and connections between said member and said feed rolls for driving said rolls continuously, of a rotary cutting mechanism into which the strip of paper is fed by said rolls, connections between said driving member and said cutting mechanism for rotating the cutting mechanism intermittently to cause it to cut the strip of paper into sheets of substanti ally uniform length and means constructed and arranged to enable the timing of the operation of said cutting mechanism to be adjusted with reference to said driving member.

8. In a mechanism of the character described, the combination with a pair of paper feeding rolls operative to. advance a strip of paper between them, of a rotary cutting mechanism comprising a knife carrying roll and a bed roll between which said strip of paper is advanced by said paper feeding rolls, operating mechanism for all of said rolls including a common driving member, said operating mechanism being constructed and arranged to drive said paper feeding rolls continuously and said cutting and bed rolls intermittently, but operative to drive the latter rolls during the cutting operation at substantially the same peripheral speed as that at which the paper is fed between them, and means for enabling the timing of the operation of said cutting mechanism to be adjusted with reference to said driving member.

9. In a mechanism of the character described, the combination of a pair of paperfeeding rolls arranged to advance a strip of paper between them, a cutting mechanism into which the strip of paper is fed by said rolls, said cutting mechanism including a. rotary knife for cutting said paper into sheets, operating mechanism for said knife constructed and arranged to maintain the knife normally stationary'at substantially a predetermined point in its path of rotation but operative to give the knife an intermittent rotative movement, and operating mechanism. for driving said feed rolis continuously constructed and arranged to enable the operative to vary at will. the length of the sheets fed to said cutting mechanism between its successive cutting operations.

In testimony whereof I have signed my name to this specification.

ELMER L. SMITH. 

